2005 SAAB 9-3 Aero project car. Where to begin?

[JCollins]

The shocks on my 93 aero have just about had enough. And I thought that instead of just replacing them, I'd upgrade them as I'm planning on keeping the car long term and modify it to make it a somewhat fun and compitant street car. Where's the best place to start?

It needs new brakes and shocks anyway so I figured I'd start there. I've been looking online at various bits and pieces, but I'm not experience in modifying cars so I'm clueless as to where to start.

I'd rather start with the handling and worry about power later.


Suggestions?

[14]

The brakes are more than powerful enough that they can be left standard. The shock absorbers that most people upgrade to are Eibach B6 or B8. If you want to keep the standard ride height then get the B6, if you want to lower the ride height then get the B8.

As for adding more power get in touch with Noobtune. He’s highly recommended on uksaabs forum.

[JCollins]

14 said:

The brakes are more than powerful enough that they can be left standard. The shock absorbers that most people upgrade to are Eibach B6 or B8. If you want to keep the standard ride height then get the B6, if you want to lower the ride height then get the B8.

As for adding more power get in touch with Noobtune. He’s highly recommended on uksaabs forum.

Cheers

[griffin dai]

2.8 or 2.0?
2.0 I’d go to Karl (noobtune) 2.8 I’d look at Maptun, Nordic or Aura tuning.

As said Eibachs & B8’s are a nice combo, the B8’s are for lowered springs so work well together. Or if you wanted to drop it a tad lower H&R is the way to go, I’d avoid Maptun springs they’ve been known to bind. The front springs are prone to snapping anyway so it’ll be worth it.

[JCollins]

griffin dai said:

2.8 or 2.0?
2.0 I’d go to Karl (noobtune) 2.8 I’d look at Maptun, Nordic or Aura tuning.

As said Eibachs & B8’s are a nice combo, the B8’s are for lowered springs so work well together. Or if you wanted to drop it a tad lower H&R is the way to go, I’d avoid Maptun springs they’ve been known to bind. The front springs are prone to snapping anyway so it’ll be worth it.

2.0. Although I'm not looking as power just yet. I'd rather have something that drove/handled well than just straight line speed.

[griffin dai]

JCollins said:

2.0. Although I'm not looking as power just yet. I'd rather have something that drove/handled well than just straight line speed.

The springs/dampers are a good start, I’d go for the B8’s as they’re designed for lowering springs. I’d also freshen up any parts there while it’s apart. Give Neo Bothers a call and they can advice what parts to change while it’s in bits. I can’t remember what we changed on mine but I think everything got a freshen up.

I polybushed most of mine with black powerflex bushes, was very frim but not crashy or harsh. It was nice. I also fitted the yellow bottom engine mount.

The strut brace (Maptun) didn’t do a hell of a lot tbh bar cut down on the dash creaks, 3 point subframe brace tightened things up a little but not loads.

Drop links are known to fail on these so most for the Meyle HD links, I went for the R&D droplinks, more money but they’re very beefy!!

Also fitted the Quaife LSD, it’s a lot of money but we’ll worth it, I had this done as I needed an upgrade clutch anyway and it turned the car into a bit of an animal! Handled really well but pretty much everything on it was upgraded.

Decent tyres and wheel alignment from a suspension specialist made a big difference, just transformed the car and the best £60 I’ve spent!! I went for Michelin PS4’s and these were amazing.

Brakes- Standard were fine on mine until I remapped the car (v6) then I had awful brake fade, I did a cheap(ish) upgrade to Mtec discs & Yellow stuff pads with HEL likes & RBF600 fluid. Miles better but then upgraded these to 345mm brakes from a Vectra VXR with DS2500 pads, that was a huge improvement.

[exelero]

Noob it!!!